Landfill, state reach agreement in Henry County

CAMBRIDGE — The state and the Atkinson Landfill have resolved a dispute over activities at the landfill. An agreement, or consent order, was signed by Judge Jeffrey O’Connor this week in Henry County Circuit Court.

On May 15 of this year, the state filed a petition to enforce a previous court order.

The “third agreed modification” signed this week requires the landfill to do many things and places a $115,000 penalty on the business — $75,000 in stipulated penalties and $40,000 in a civil penalty. The sum of $25,000 is due now, and $90,000 is due either on the date of a sale to a third party or on Jan. 31, 2019.

If the facility is sold within six months of the new agreement, the landfill may request that the consent order end no earlier than 30 days after completing all compliance activities in the order.

The actions the consent order requires are many and varied. They include, within 30 days of the order, repairing all erosion channels and rills, installing a leachate pump and fixing groundwater-monitoring wells at five locations.

Within 60 days of the date of the order, the landfill is to submit a work plan for removal of all “unpermitted waste” from the northern and western areas of concern and remove any fiber cement production waste greater than two inches in any direction that’s used for alternate daily cover or temporary road base outside the permitted waste footprint, and cover all fiber cement production waste within the permitted waste footprint..

On or before Oct. 1, 2019, the landfill is to apply final cover to the southern slope of one of the cells.

The order also requires the landfill to pay $44,420 that was due to the state from operations in the third quarter of 2018.